Lack of skepticism as an unrecognized world crisis

Confronting the World’s Great Unrecognized Crisis

Quote:

Even during economically challenging times humankind doesn’t flinch at squandering trillions of dollars on pseudoscience and superstition. Every day, unknown numbers of people in every society suffer because they trust medical quackery over evidence-based medicine. Some of them die. Democracies often produce incompetent leaders because too many people are in the habit of accepting and believing before they think and vote. Distracted by delusions, billions never attempt to connect with the real universe they live in, thereby denying themselves much of the knowledge and excitement it offers. Every moment, somewhere, children are taught speculative nonsense packaged as confirmed facts. But the root problem for all of this—scarcity of skeptical thinking—is rarely acknowledged, much less addressed in any meaningful way. Few parents encourage their children to be skeptical thinkers. Most teachers don’t teach it. Politicians never talk about it. This is the world’s great unrecognized crisis. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

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